1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to silane-terminated polymers and methods for producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Crosslinkable silane-terminated polymers (STPs) are widely used as raw material polymers in coating materials, adhesives, sealing materials, elastomers and the like (CASE applications) for architectural or industrial use. Commercially available STPs are typically made via three routes: (1) hydrosilylation of vinyl terminated polyether containing alkoxysilane end groups and polyether backbones; (2) aminosilane chemistry, where an isocyanate-terminated prepolymer is reacted to an aminosilane with a resulting product containing urea bonds as well as alkoxysilyl end groups and polyether backbones; and (3) SPUR technology, where an isocyanatosilane is reacted to a hydroxyl-terminated prepolymer with a resulting product containing urethane linkages as well as alkoxysilyl end groups and polyether backbones. The latter two technologies, especially the aminosilane technology, typically suffer from high viscosity in products due to the presence of urethane and/or urea bonds. From a formulation point of view, high viscosity STP resins are undesirable and require large amounts of diluent during formulation.
In industrial applications, product consistency and properties are of great importance. Impurities commonly seen in raw materials are known to impact such qualities desired by resin manufacturer.
Therefore there is a need for low viscosity and fast curing crosslinkable silane-terminated polymers